The Chinese Expressive Theory Research On The Vivid Postures Of Qiuci Grottoes Mural Kabuki Characters

Qiuci Grottoes Buddhist murals in Western China have been influenced by Buddhist art of music and dance, the relationship between physical appearance and spirit, and the law of God. With the combined impact of the Gandhara art derived from India, Greek, Persian and other western arts and the local art, the mural characters have vivid postures in addition to their eyes. Through the harmonization of the eyes and physical figures, the murals have depicted the characters with deep meanings in their hands and feet. The s-shaped physical figures and the contrast between the characters often use the exaggeration portrait techniques to skillfully convey the spirit, temperament and personality. Historically GU Kaizhi was the first one to introduce the Chinese expressive theory in the space of Chinese portrait of the characters. With the further development of the theory by SU Shi in Song Dynasty, the Chinese expressive theory has focused on the characters’ eyes and facial features. It depicted the spirit and personality of a character through the physical characteristics. Western portraits are skilled at showing “unity of mind” by vividly depicting the character figures and postures from an overall view. Therefore, in today’s portrait painting, we should inherit the traditional Chinese way of vivid portraits, and focus on the depiction of vivid eyes and the coordination between eyes and postures to make the characters more vivid and lifelike.Based on the Chinese expressive theory research on the vivid posture of Qiuci Grottoes mural Kabuki characters, this thesis presents that the expressive Chinese portrait should focus on the vivid depiction of character posturesin addition to the attention of eyes in order to master the characters’ spirit and temperament as a whole. The thesis adopts the multiple techniques of the observation, image analysis, and document comparison for the analysis and appraisal.